Editor's Note

December 29, 2001

Dear President Bush:

When you spoke to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in September and asked every nation in every region of the world to make a decision, you told all of us we are either with you and your government, or we are with the terrorists. I'm having trouble understanding this statement.

I thought I was already anti-Taliban in May of this year when, even under UN sanctions, you decided to give them a $43 million reward for their ban on the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan. Are you asking me to switch sides now? I dare say some of that money went into financing terrorist attacks against American interests.

What's next, more monetary aid and U.S. troops to a regime in Colombia that continues to commit more of the lesser known terrorist acts of the last decade? Perhaps this is nothing more than the status quo from a government whose primary interest seems to be securing the oil fields of Central Asia and South America and lying about it to the American people.

Until I see some hard evidence that you are acting in this country's best interest, or until one of us finds out exactly what this country's best interest actually consists of other than the continued policy of dependence on fossil fuels, I'm going to have to remain undeclared as to which side of this pear-shaped sphere I'm on.

Sincerely,

A.G. Vermouth, U.S. citizen

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